Skip to main content
Main

Fish Chowder

A hearty soup made with cod, haddock, onions, potatoes, salt pork, crackers, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Fish Chowder

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the fish into pieces and set aside.

  2. Chop the onions and potatoes.

Cook

  1. In a large pot, layer the fish, onions, potatoes, and salt pork.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Split the crackers and lay them on top.

  4. Add enough hot water to cover the ingredients.

  5. Boil gently for 15 minutes.

  6. Mix 2 tablespoons of flour with ⅓ cup of cream.

  7. Stir the flour mixture into the boiling chowder and let it boil once more.

  8. Serve hot.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Haddock + creamtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together181 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the chowder and flakes into the broth as it cooks.
Potatoes
Release starch as they cook, thickening the broth and adding body.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the broth.
Cream
Adds richness and smoothness, mellowed by the flour that is stirred in.
Flour (in the method)
Thickens the cream and broth so the chowder becomes creamy rather than watery.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour and cream into the boiling chowder. Flour thickens only when heated and stirred, so adding it to a boiling liquid without stirring can form lumps. Mixing it with cream first helps it disperse evenly before it boils once more.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, haddock, potato, bread, pork, pepper, cream):

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Onionthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, haddock, potato, bread, pork, pepper, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

More fish chowder recipes

New England 5Salt 3 See all 159 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesFried FishFried Fish120 recipesPork CakePork Cake107 recipes